The Merry Corgi

On a journey towards an earth-friendly existence

[themerrycorgi]

Updates

Hey all! I’ve been gone for a bit, but here are some updates:

1. After a long weekend of camping I realized just how wonderful baking soda cleans the grease and sweat out of your hair in a way vinegar can’t. I’m still using vinegar 6 days of the week, but when it’s really greasy and bad from exercise or what have you, baking soda literally makes my hair squeaky from lack of grease. 10/10.

2. I bought my normal box of Outshine Lemon bars from Target and not only noticed how absurdly expensive they are ($5 for a box of 6?!) but how much packaging I threw out with every one. Needless to say I bought some reusable popsicle moulds and will be experimenting with making my own lemon pops!

3. I have a good lead on a local business that wants my compostables, so if that’s the case I’m going to start collecting them more carefully and shuttling them over. Yay, waste reduction!

4. The DIY shaving cream is really hard to clean off of razors. I don’t use shaving cream (I was blessed with skin that doesn’t need more than warm water :P) but my s/o does, so I think I’ll be trying it with castile soap next.  5. I re-made the dishwashing detergent, used kosher salt instead of normal salt this time, and the recipe I used called for lemonade packets but I used citric acid instead. I’ll see if this one gets all clumpy fast. 6. I haven’t found a replacement for my energy drink packets that I use at work. Sure, I could buy cans of energy drink, or cups of coffee, but that’s waste as well. And way more expensive. With the packets it’s $0.07 a bottle. Recommendations?

[themerrycorgi]

DIY Paw Pad Wax-- a review.

By now y’all should know miss Pebbles, the inspiration for this blog’s name and logo. In case you forgot, here she is with me on a recent camping adventure:

Yeah, she’s pretty cute, isn’t she? I agree. But between the harsh rains recently and us starting to take her running, her paw pads weren’t so cute. I went to buy Musher’s Secret, but not only was it expensive, they won’t let you know what’s in their ‘secret formula’. Like, I get it, but I’m not going to rub something into my dog’s feet and hope it’s good for her. That’s not how I roll.

So I found this recipe online from the blog frugally sustainable: https://frugallysustainable.com/protective-paw-wax/ and went on my merry way.

First step, put everything in a pot and melt it together:

Second step, pour it in a vessel (I got mine at Savers for $3.99):

Step 3: Wait a long time and then put it on your very reluctant dog’s paws:

And finally, one gratuitous toebean photo from after we put the wax on:

Yeah, she hated it. You can see it in her lil face ‘I hate this.’ She also hated how we laughed at her while she slipped around on the hardwood until it absorbed in.

But what she didn’t hate is not having chapped paws.  And after her long hike, her paws looked better. We’ve used it twice since making it two days ago and it is already becoming a lifesaver for her lil feets.

That’s all for today.

[themerrycorgi]

Zero waste win of the day: Someone left this pot in the area of our apartment complex unofficially dedicated to useful things you no longer want. My cucumber sprout is loving it. And so am I.

[themerrycorgi]

Why I only wash my hair with Vinegar

Once upon a time, I found out that my shampoo was full of carcinogens, and things that didn’t dissolve in the environment.

What? I was rubbing cancer on my head? Go figure.

So after a few quick google searches I found out that half-water half-apple cider vinegar was the way to go for hair conditioning, cleaning, what have you. 

I figured I’d give it a trial period and see how my hair did. And honestly, I have no complaints.

My shower REEKS of vinegar for the first few seconds after I pour it on my head and scrub it in, but it the smell dissipates, and my head no longer smells like salad dressing once my hair dries.

And it’s not going to give me cancer, which is great!

Here are my before and after (the before is months before, when my hair was still dyed red. After is five minutes ago.)

My hair, aside from being lighter in the second picture (my natural shade), I feel is less greasy and looks more natural in texture overall. My s/o also said my hair looked less dry and poofy, whatever that means. I think I’ve just been styling it better. (Short hair + THICK hair = poofy. End of story.)

Also, I’ve noticed that my absolutely awful dandruff is nearly gone! As gross as it is, I used to remind myself of that scene from the breakfast club where the girl is creating snow on her drawing by scratching her head... I tried to produce dandruff yesterday to see how my scalp was doing and had a damn hard time. 

Anyway, good experiences. I recommend trying it and saving yourself money, cancer, and environmental damage! Though maybe if you have guests get a solid-colored bottle to put it in so it doesn’t look like you have a mason jar of pee in your shower. Just a thought.

[themerrycorgi]

https://wellnessmama.com/3615/stain-treatment-reference/All-natural Stain Removal Guide!

Courtesy of Wellnessmama:

[themerrycorgi]

All-Natural Substitutions I will be trying this weekend

Links list below the jump!

This spray for itchy dog spots: http://www.wideopenpets.com/make-homemade-spray-itchy-dogs/

This homemade oatmeal dog shampoo: http://www.lifemadefull.com/homemade-oatmeal-shampoo-for-dry-itchy-skin-for-dogs/

This recipe for paw wax: https://frugallysustainable.com/protective-paw-wax/

This all-natural shaving cream: https://www.mommypotamus.com/natural-homemade-shaving-cream/

And I’ll be making more of my laundry soap, which is based off of this recipe: https://wellnessmama.com/462/homemade-laundry-detergent/

I’ll report back over the week!

[themerrycorgi]

So I was going to the gym last night...

And I grabbed a microfiber cloth off the my bathroom counter to mop the sweat off myself because the gym I go to isn’t air conditioned and I’m doing C25k

Anyway after I stop running I start wiping my face and feel a slight burn and realize that it smells like vinegar...

That was 100% the cloth I was using with my diluted vinegar mixture to clean the counter the day before.

Suddenly I was very grateful I didn’t use bleach or other cleaning products again because I can think of worse things than having vinegar on my face. 

I continued to use it, just avoided my eyes more carefully.

Small sustainability wins? Also, unrelated to this but related to vinegar, using a 50/50 apple cider vinegar/water rinse for my hair instead of shampoo and conditioner has not only made my hair less dry/poofy, but has basically fixed my dandruff problem. more on that later.

[themerrycorgi]

My experience with DIY Dishwasher Soap

When I decided to trend towards an eco-friendly lifestyle, I realized a huge part of that would include my cleaning products. They were all chemicals and gels and I was about to run out of dishwasher detergent.. so what’s a girl to do?

Well, I took out a locking glass jar I had previously stored coffee in and threw in:

2 cups washing soda

2 cups borax

1 cup citric acid

1 cup salt

I mixed ‘em all together and, when the time came to do dishes, I took a normal large kitchen spoon, put a scoop in, and then put the spoon in the wash and turned it on.

My dishes came out sparkling clean! A few washes later, the issues became apparent. It was leaving water marks and residue on some dishes, and.. it was clumping. Really badly clumping. Like I-had-to-scrape-off-the-top bad. After a week of pounding a spoon into a solid rock of detergent to try to wash my spotty dishes, I gave up. 

(My boyfriend likes to blame me leaving the container near the sink for this clumping issue, and like, he’s probably right, but still! How rude.)

I pulled out all the detergent and broke it back up into a powder, and I added salt. A lot of salt. I don’t know how much. But, like, a lot.

This is not only supposed to fix hard water problems, but somewhere in the back of my head it would also fix the clumping?

So with a determined face I mixed it all up, put it back in the jar, and put did a load of dishes. 

The dishes were less spotty! There was no residue! And over the next month it became apparent (yes, this shit will last you MONTHS), that the clumping wasn’t coming back. There are a few tiny clumps, and my boyfriend insists it settles so he violently shakes the container before he scoops any, but I’m not convinced.

Either way, score 1 for the environment and for me, score 0 for Target brand washing machine detergent. 

[themerrycorgi]

Low-Waste Scrapbooking

So one of my passions is Scrapbooking. Which is, debatably, the opposite of low-waste. I know. There are bits and baubles and papers and glue and a lot of plastic.

But here are a few tips I have to help you reduce your waste while crafting!

1. Die Cut Machine       I’ll outline my personal set-up in another post, but this has been my biggest money & environment saver. Instead of buying a pack of stickers you’ll use 2 of, you can use cardstock or paper you already have (of which the scraps can be recycled (or composted?) easily!) and cut all the shapes you need/want. It takes a bit longer, and there’s a learning curve, but you’ll get the hang of it!

2. Print your photos locally      The online stores may have better sales, or free prints, or whatever, but you can just as easily get them printed same-day at your local CVS. I get this done in bulk when they have 50% off sales, which is usually cheaper than shutterfly once you factor in the lack of shipping costs! And you’re saving the packaging to mail them in, not to mention the transport fuel costs and etc.

3. Buy used!       Check websites like Facebook Marketplace (Where I got my cricut!) and Craigslist for supplies people are selling or giving away. These have already been purchased and the total amount of waste has been created already for them.  You can also get a major discount this way.

4. Plan in advance       This is where I fall short. I have a ton of photos I never ended up with a space for, and stickers I didn’t use, and paper I have no idea what to do with.. be better than me. Plan out your pages in advance (this is easier if you’re not trying to catch up from 2 years ago.. *cough*). But this will ultimately save you the most time, money, and waste, by not having things you never used or don’t even know why you bought them in the first place.

Any questions? Drop them in my Ask box! Have a great one! S

[themerrycorgi]

When you find out..

That your city’s recycling program DOES recycle plastics #1-7, but you have to take non-hard plastic items to a separate facility.

I guess I’ll make a weekly trip with my compost trip...

[themerrycorgi]

About the Blog

The Merry Corgi is an eco-friendly blog dedicated to living a low-waste lifestyle and using sustainable, bio-degradable or recyclable alternatives to everyday products.

You’re not gonna see me fit a week, month, or year’s worth the waste in a mason jar, but I still like to think I’m making a solid difference.